Le passé composé is the past tense in French. It translates to adding -ed onto the end of a verb in English. Le passé composé always has two parts, which makes it different from present tense and future tense. The first part is an auxilliary verb, which is usually avoir, and the second part is the verb you are conjugating with its past tense ending.
L’auxiliare (avoir)
J’ai Tu as Il a Elle a Nous avons Vous avez Ils ont Elles ont
Le participe passé (the verb you are conjugating)
For regular ER, IR, and RE verbs, take off the ER, IR, or RE, and add the past tense ending:
ER --> é IR --> i RE --> u
eg. parler
J’ai parlé (I talked) Tu as parlé Il/Elle/On/Qui a parlé Nous avons parlé Vous avez parlé Ils/Elles ont parlé
eg. finir
J’ai fini (I finished) Tu as fini Il/Elle/On/Qui a fini Nous avons fini Vous avez fini Ils/Elles ont fini
eg. vendre
J’ai vendu (I sold) Tu as vendu Il/Elle/On/Qui a vendu Nous avons vendu Vous avez vendu Ils/Elles ont vendu
Notice how each verb has two parts - avoir and the verb you are conjugating.
Les verbes irréguliers
Again, like present tense and future tense, there are many irregular verbs in the past tense that take avoir as their auxilliary verb. The avoir part remains the same, but the second part of the verb does not follow the above ER, IR, and RE rules. Here are the most common irregular avoir verbs in le passé composé grouped into families:
Le passé composé is the past tense in French. It translates to adding -ed onto the end of a verb in English.
Le passé composé always has two parts, which makes it different from present tense and future tense. The first part is an auxilliary verb, which is usually avoir, and the second part is the verb you are conjugating with its past tense ending.
L’auxiliare (avoir)
J’ai
Tu as
Il a
Elle a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils ont
Elles ont
Le participe passé (the verb you are conjugating)
For regular ER, IR, and RE verbs, take off the ER, IR, or RE, and add the past tense ending:
ER --> é
IR --> i
RE --> u
eg. parler
J’ai parlé (I talked)
Tu as parlé
Il/Elle/On/Qui a parlé
Nous avons parlé
Vous avez parlé
Ils/Elles ont parlé
eg. finir
J’ai fini (I finished)
Tu as fini
Il/Elle/On/Qui a fini
Nous avons fini
Vous avez fini
Ils/Elles ont fini
eg. vendre
J’ai vendu (I sold)
Tu as vendu
Il/Elle/On/Qui a vendu
Nous avons vendu
Vous avez vendu
Ils/Elles ont vendu
Notice how each verb has two parts - avoir and the verb you are conjugating.
Les verbes irréguliers
Again, like present tense and future tense, there are many irregular verbs in the past tense that take avoir as their auxilliary verb. The avoir part remains the same, but the second part of the verb does not follow the above ER, IR, and RE rules. Here are the most common irregular avoir verbs in le passé composé grouped into families:
prendre = pris
comprendre = compris
apprendre = appris
surprendre = surpris
mettre = mis
promettre = promis
permettre = permis
dire = dit
écrire = écrit
faire = fait
lire = lu*
être = été
avoir = eu
voir = vu
savoir = su
devoir = dû
pouvoir = pu
vouloir = voulu*
recevoir = reçu*
boire = bu
courir = couru*
eg. être
J’ai été (I was)
Tu as été
Il/Elle/On/Qui a été
Nous avons été
Vous avez été
Ils/Elles ont été
Negation
To make verbs in le passé composé negative, use ne...pas only around the avoir part, or the first verb.
eg. voir
Je n'ai pas vu (I did not see)
Tu n'as pas vu
Il/Elle/On/Qui n'a pas vu
Nous n'avons pas vu
Vous n'avez pas vu
Ils/Elles n'ont pas vu